Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

One of the best films i have seen

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

In the early 40s, the Disney Studio had a number of features in planning stages, but these would not see the light of day until the post-war years. Two of these were Bongo and The Legend Of Happy Valley. Work began as early as early as 1940, but were shelved due to several setbacks.Like every feature that the studio produced in the immediate post-war years, this was a compilation of unrelated stories or visuals. Both stories were cut down in length to accommodate a feature length, much like The Wind And The Willows was. I've wanted to see what the studio's vision was for these stories as feature films.Disney had largely moved away from frightening sequences by this point. They still had occasional dark moments but it was toned down to a dramatic atmosphere. What you'll see here is a very lighthearted feel good film. Bongo doesn't really offer much story wise, but Dinah Shore's narration and singing interludes make it a very enjoyable segment. Mickey And The Beanstalk as narrated by Edgar Bergan makes for an interesting period piece. This is the best Mickey, Donald, and Goofy outting. This time they function as a team working through many perilous obstacles and comical situations. The Singing Harp almost anticipates Cinderella (different voice actress though).While Disney's package films are not well remembered and were panned by the studio staff, they do present a lot of light hearted and enjoyable moments. This film is a prelude to the studio's Silver Age of the 1950's.

The Bad:This film is divided up into two animated segments, with live-action intermission, so it doesn't feel like a full-length feature. The first animated piece, staring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, is a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. The second, an original story about a dancing bear, Bongo, that discovers the wilds of nature. The live animation pieces are down right awful. It is a birthday 'party' consisting of two children and an adult who is a ventriloquist. First, ventriloquism is not an act that translates well to a TV medium. Especially when you can see the human's mouth move. Second, these live-action scenes feel heavy-handed, not natural and certainly not funny or enjoyable. If you bought this video, you'd probably end up fast forwarding past these parts every viewing to get to the animation. Which brings me to the animated parts. The first one is decent (I'll get to that in a minute), but the second one, centering around Bongo is especially cringe- worthy. Over the course of the short, Bongo discovers a female bear, falls in love, and learns that the best way to show love to someone is to slap them. Wow. What a lesson. There's even a whole song dedicated to showing someone you love them "with a slap". Can I just take a moment to wonder what the script writer was thinking here? The Good:The saving grace of this film is the first animated segment. Mickey and pals go on a semi-epic quest, and it's honestly fun and humorous, and enjoyable. If I were rating just this part of this video, I'd give it a solid 7 or 8 stars.The Mom View:Two-thirds of this movie is not worth watching, but I really like the Mickey and the Beanstalk part. That makes this a tough one for me. For just that one animated segment, I'd say this is appropriate for pre-schoolers and up and that it's certainly a recommended show. However, since that cartoon comes attached to the rest, I can't recommend anything more than a rental (or perhaps YouTube). That's what I'm planning with my kids – try to stream it somewhere and skip everything that's not Mickey and the Beanstalk.

Fun Disney picture with two stories. The first is Bongo, a cute story about a little bear falling in love and having to fight a bigger bear for his lady. Flimsy story but it moves along quickly enough. It's over a half-hour long but I didn't even really think about how long it was until after it was over so I certainly can't complain about the pacing. This story was narrated by Dinah Shore, who also sings. Lovely voice. Modern viewers, particularly those with a dark sense of humor, might see a domestic violence message in this one. Bongo was something of a 'gangsta.' The second story is the Mickey Mouse version of Jack and the Beanstalk. I know I saw this one many times as a kid but, for the life of me, I don't remember seeing Bongo before today. So perhaps this was released on a VHS collection or something back in the day, separate from this film. This one is narrated by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, who also appears in a live action segment doing his puppet routine in what appears to be a private birthday party for a little girl who I hoped was his daughter but turns out it was Disney child star Luana Patten. A little creepy but different times.Jiminy Cricket also appears in the beginning and in a linking segment from the first story to the second. As always with classic Disney, the animation is excellent, with beautiful drawings and rich colors. Love the music, as well. This is far from my favorite Disney movie, even limited to the compilation ones. But I do enjoy it a lot and I can't imagine most Disney fans not liking it.

While not as good as other package films Disney released around the same time, "Fun & Fancy Free" has enough to like about it to justify the watch. It's great seeing characters like Jiminy, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, the animation's fantastic as always, and both stories are good enough to stand on their own. "Bongo"s a straight-forward "the-grass-is-always-greener" story, but with some darker elements to it. And "Mickey & the Beanstalk" is just Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, doing their own version of the famous story. The only real problem I had with the film was the constant cuts to the live-action characters towards the end. I thought it killed the momentum of the segment a lot.